GEMS Blog for Advisors

December 17, 2021

Autumn 2021 Graduation & Degree Audit Help

Please use the following checklist to assist GEMS in providing a quick and successful graduation for your students:

Checklist

Before you recommend a student for graduation in MyGrad, verify the following:

  • the master’s degree request indicates the correct degree code. If the code is incorrect, please enter a departmental comment on the Master’s Request before recommending the student for graduation, such as “ATTN GEMS: Update Degree code to MUSIC-20-25.“
  • department contingencies have been cleared
  • petitions, if necessary, have been submitted and approved by GEMS
  • required courses have grades appearing on the degree audit
  • all requirements appear OK (satisfied) on the degree audit (see exceptions under Requirement Status on Degree Audit in the below section)
  • current quarter grades have posted to the transcript
  • the warrant has been printed; see MGP Help

Requirement Status on Degree Audit

The Degree Audit is color-coded to help you quickly identify the status of requirements:

IP – The requirement is satisfied when the current or in-progress courses are completed.
NO – The requirement has not been satisfied.
OK – The requirement has been satisfied.

You can run the Degree Audit from the Student Detail Page in MGP to verify that all requirements appear OK with a few exceptions:

The following requirements will always appear as NO because they are satisfied by GEMS during graduation processing:

  • Thesis accepted by the Graduate School
  • Thesis written in English
  • Dissertation accepted by the Graduate School
  • Dissertation written in English
  • Registered as a graduate student the quarter the Final Exam is taken

The following requirement will appear as NO if the student is paying the Graduate Registration Waiver Fee:

  • Maintain registration as a graduate student through the end of the quarter in which the degree is conferred

All other requirements should appear OK before you recommend graduation in MyGrad.

Degree Audit Tips

  • Examine the IP requirements closely. Sometimes grades are missing for required courses taken in previous quarters/years.
  • Do not recommend graduation if an IP course is a required course. Confirm the grade has posted before you recommend graduation.

New Departmental Exceptions and DARS Help Files

In Spring 2021, new departmental exceptions became available. Please review Degree Audit: New Help Files on our Spring graduation blog.
Also, instructions for processing exceptions to extend the time limit have been added to MyGrad Help files.